Gulping gargoyles! A Harry Potter restaurant inside SHMS Leysin campus.

Harry Potter fans rejoiced at the news of a Potter-themed restaurant. From the walls down to the menu, the Harry Potter concept lab aimed to be everyone’s favourite choice for retreat by transporting muggle guests to the magical world of ‘the boy who lived’.

Would you prefer a butter beer or a love potion as your aperitif? And what about a magic bush for a starter? The chef recommends Ron’s chicken for the main course and a goblet of fire for dessert.

Irene, Simon, Audrey, Jodie,Victoria, Olina, Lily, and Kay are the students behind this magical concept. They came up with this magical idea and created a Harry Potter restaurant inside their campus. But there is much more going on behind this project.

Concept labs are part of the Masters in International Business in Food and Beverage and Restaurant Management course. During this unique Masters programme students are challenged to manage a real situation restaurant.

At the beginning, students create their business plan guided by lecturers in order to analyse the socio-economic situation of the country chosen as the restaurant’s location, their target audience and the cost-revenue.

After their research, they get to the practical part and implement their own concept for a week. The situation is very real, as the students have to generate revenue in order to set up their menu. Operating in a real life situation gives them the opportunity to move towards self-directed processes management in an environment of their own making.

Sonia Santana, the concept lab Manager and lecturer at SHMS informed us that every semester the students create 16 different concepts that they need to develop from A to Z.

 

"We always end up with very unique and creative concepts. We had a paleo concept lab, a vegetarian restaurant, based on the world trend of health and wellness etc. I want to encourage my students to try to analyse all the information that they collect and always be aware of the business reality." She stated.

 

And it doesn’t stop there. Students get a second opportunity to run their concept at an enhanced level, having analysed and evaluated their success along specific key performance indicators.

 

We had the opportunity to meet Kay and Olina. They explained the research that supported their idea and even shared their building plans for the restaurant. Merlin’s beard(!) was a very well thought and analysed concept.

 

"We wanted to create an experience.  We followed the same idea as in Harry Potter movies: the food is the centrepiece but the hospitality is what makes the difference." Said Kay, who is going to be the concept lab intern for the next semester.

 

When asked what did she learn from this project and how this helped her develop her skills, Olina shared:

 

"I want to open my own restaurant in China. This Masters degree and more specifically this programme taught me how to do that and also gave me the confidence that I needed to follow my dream. And who knows, I might open a Harry Potter themed restaurant!"